Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union - Open Society ...

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passengers at borders, although the methodology needed further development. It alsofound that data in this area are useful for highlighting disproportional rates of stopsand monitoring trends and officer decision-making.Given historical abuses of ethnic data and ongoing sensitivities, the question ofhow to define and record ethnicity must be addressed with sensitivity. The UK stopform features 16 “ethnic” categories as well as “other,” and the person stopped is askedto self-identify according to these categories. The officer can also provide his/her perceptionof the person’s ethnicity if the officer disagrees with the self-identification. Theform also records the law under which the stop has been made and provides an openfield for officers to record the individualized grounds that led him to suspect that personis involved in crime. This provides the basis for supervision to ensure that officers areconducting their stops in accordance with the law.In Bulgaria, Hungary, and Spain, a European Union-funded pilot project introducedstop forms which recorded the nationality and/or ethnicity of the persons stopped.These stop forms were in full compliance with national personal data protection law ineach country—even in Hungary, which has one of the strictest personal data protectionstandards in the EU. (Please see Appendix A for the Hungarian stop form.) This project,called Strategies for Effective Police Stop and Search (STEPSS), demonstrated thatthrough monitoring stops, police can reduce ethnic profiling and enhance efficiency atthe same time. This project is discussed in more detail below.In order to analyze data from stop forms and determine whether ethnic minoritiesare stopped more than whites, the ratio of ethnic minorities in the population needsto be compared to the ratio of ethnic minorities who have been stopped. The question ofwhat population is in fact the fair comparator or benchmark has generated considerablecontroversy in both the United States and the United Kingdom. 146Data analysis should certainly seek to be as accurate and precise as possible, butwhen stop data consistently show that ethnic minorities are stopped at vastly higherrates than the majority population when compared to their overall representation in thepopulation, it indicates an issue that needs to be addressed.General principles of good practice:Ethnic data are a necessary but not a sufficient tool to address ethnic profiling.It is the first step in a process that uses data as feedback for management andsupervision and as a resource for community outreach and dialogue.Gathering ethnic data in a manner consistent with European data protectionnorms is particularly important for highly discretionary actions such as identitychecks and stops and searches.78 ETHNIC MONITORING AND LAW ENFORCEMENT DATA-GATHERING
Data should be used in management, supervision, and training, to assess andimprove the targeting of police operations, and to enhance individual officers’awareness of the manner in which they use their powers. Proper use of the datashould lead to reduced reliance on stereotypes and increased productivity.All sensitive personal data (such as on ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexualpreference) that is linked to specific individuals must be strictly protected inaccordance with data protection laws.The purpose of gathering ethnic data is to increase the transparency and accountabilityof law enforcement. All ethnic statistics that can be disclosed consistentwith European data protection norms should be made public on a regular basis.Data should form the basis for outreach to local residents to discuss the reasonsfor any disproportionality and to improve policing based on reviews of local safetyconcerns.Data collected from police records should be supplemented with data from othersources, including general population surveys, to obtain quantitative and qualitativedata on the experiences of law enforcement activities among different groupsin the population.Mechanisms to Ensure Officer Compliance andReduce BureaucracyThe use of police generated stop data relies on officers accurately recording their stoppractices. The issue of under-recording stops—or officers simply failing to fill out stopforms—is well known and a variety of means are available to monitor and promoteofficer compliance. In the UK, the Home Office Stop and Search Study encounteredsignificant under-recording of stops and searches during a pilot monitoring process,with perhaps as many as two-thirds going unrecorded. 147 The STEPSS project also foundvaried compliance levels: when stop forms were compared to radio logs, the resultsshowed that in Hungary officers recorded on average 68 percent of their stops; in Spainthe rates varied greatly across the pilot sites from 95 percent to just under 50 percent.Given the problems identified with police-generated stop data, it is important to supplementthis data where possible with research from other sources drawing on bothquantitative and qualitative methodologies.The following case study from Merseyside in the UK shows a qualitative approachto check that officers are filling out forms properly.REDUCING ETHNIC PROFILING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION 79
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OPEN SOCIETY JUSTICE INITIATIVERedu
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described in this report. The case
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List of Case StudiesThe case studie
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UNITED KINGDOMAUSTRIA/BELGIUM/BULGA
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UNITED KINGDOMUNITED KINGDOMNETHERL
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The United Nations, the Council of
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I. Ethnic Profiling DefinedA Compre
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The use by the police, with no obje
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explicitly on their membership in a
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of the persons subjected thereto sh
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The impact of ethnic profiling on c
Page 29 and 30: of the ethnic minorities disproport
Page 31 and 32: II. A Holistic Approachto Reducing
Page 33 and 34: Law enforcement agencies are accoun
Page 35 and 36: III. Legal Standards andInstitution
Page 37 and 38: Criminal and Administrative Legal R
Page 39 and 40: ImmigrationThe Equality Act covers
Page 41 and 42: FRANCEObligation of Non-Discriminat
Page 43 and 44: General principles of good practice
Page 45 and 46: UNITED KINGDOMPolice and Criminal E
Page 47 and 48: has lasted for an hour, the examini
Page 49 and 50: In order to conduct a check using a
Page 51 and 52: the person could pose a threat to p
Page 53 and 54: Improving law enforcement relations
Page 55: IRELANDPolicing Plan 2008The Garda
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Page 60 and 61: complaints commissions that include
Page 62 and 63: Civilian oversight can and should d
Page 64 and 65: In Ireland and Northern Ireland, po
Page 66 and 67: These case studies also demonstrate
Page 68 and 69: NETHERLANDSNational OmbudsmanThe Du
Page 70 and 71: UNITED KINGDOM / NORTHERN IRELANDNo
Page 72 and 73: DENMARKThe Danish Institute of Huma
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Page 76 and 77: UNITED KINGDOMThe Communities and L
Page 78 and 79: used, such as those described below
Page 82 and 83: UNITED KINGDOMMerseyside Police Rev
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Page 86 and 87: As the above examples indicate, dat
Page 88 and 89: Research Approaches and Methodologi
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Page 92 and 93: The study revealed that in addition
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Page 96 and 97: UNITED STATESAttitudinal Survey of
Page 98 and 99: UNITED KINGDOMThe Views of the Publ
Page 100 and 101: NORTHERN IRELANDBeyond the Margins:
Page 102 and 103: DENMARKMedia Reporting of Police St
Page 105 and 106: VI. Strategies for Reducing EthnicD
Page 107 and 108: people were stopped and valuable po
Page 109 and 110: only do so if the measure is determ
Page 111 and 112: Supervision and Oversight of Front-
Page 113 and 114: This is not to say that stop forms
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Page 117 and 118: UNITED KINGDOM“Know Your Rights
Page 119 and 120: Prior to the ride-alongs, many Hung
Page 121 and 122: General principles of good practice
Page 123 and 124: UNITED KINGDOMMonitoring the Qualit
Page 125: GREECEProhibition of Racist Languag
Page 128 and 129: This handbook recommends that law e
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Where possible, training should inc
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SWEDENPolice and Youth Sharing Expe
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Training in the Counter-radicalizat
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VIII. Changing Institutional Cultur
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and Wales have used the package. Mo
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NORTHERN IRELANDCreating a More Bal
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Moroccan man. Another minority offi
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General principles of good practice
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other characteristics or values. Co
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Take steps to ensure that all parts
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Law enforcement agencies must be se
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A large number of Polish migrants h
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variety of individuals with “life
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UNITED KINGDOMCommunity Stop and Se
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their needs, and problems, and hear
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to travel as far as Liverpool to ac
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The strategy includes multiple init
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The website provides an interactive
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Appendix A:Sample Stop Forms171
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REDUCING ETHNIC PROFILING IN THE EU
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Fuenlabrada, Spain Stop FormREDUCIN
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West Yorkshire Police Stop ReceiptR
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Covenant rights that are especially
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• Necessity: The use of ethnic pr
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The clear risk of arbitrariness in
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The Committee considers that identi
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adopted on June 29, 2007, CRI/Counc
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European Union Fundamental Rights A
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Notes1. Rebekah Delsol, Open Societ
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13. A report of MI5’s behavioral
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38. From the email text sent by Tem
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57. R. Davis and P. Mateu-Gelabert,
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88. Gillan and Quinton v. United Ki
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Ireland). Of the total number of co
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139. For example, European Commissi
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165. Open Society Justice Initiativ
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197. These can be found at: http://
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230. More information can be found
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266. To undertake this kind of anal
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279. In Rosalind Williams, Spanish
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Ethnic profiling by police in Europ
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